Tuesday, October 1, 2013

It's Beer:30 For Cachers

At lest in Munich it is time to eat, drink, play at the fair and cache like crazy.

I have never taken the time to find out the history of Oktoberfest, til now. For those of you who are in the same boat as I am, here is a bit of history.

What is Oktoberfest?

Oktoberfest is the worlds largest folk festival held yearly in Munich, Germany. It began in 1810 when Bavaria's Crown Prince Ludwig married Theresa of Saxony (Sachsen-Hildburghausen). The townsfolk held a party in a large field outside the city to celebrate and it was so popular, they held it again a year later. The same field has hosted the festival ever since and came to be named 'Theresienwiese' or 'Theresa's meadow' in English. The rest as they say, is history! It is, without a doubt, the largest festival in the world. Much bigger and bolder than anything you have ever seen, it regularly draws over 6 million people through it's 16 day run.

When is it?

Although called Oktoberfest and originally beginning on Oct 12th, the Wiesn began to start in September in 1872 to take advantage of better weather. To find out when any years festival starts, just find the first Sunday in October and count back 15 days to the starting Saturday. The year 2013 will be the 180th festival and starts on the 21st of September and runs through October 6th.

What's it all about?

The simple answer to many people would be, "It's about the Bier!" While that may be true for a lot of folks, drinking isn't the only thing to do there. The Oktoberfest grounds are over 100 acres large and host a dazzling array of bier tents, food stands, carnival rides, games and more. Many families enjoy taking the children to Oktoberfest and in fact, Tuesdays at the Fest are family days with reduced food, bier and ride prices.

What has been happening this year in Munich?

Lord mayor on Munich -
Christian Ude

When will the Oktoberfest 2013 take place?

On Saturday, September 21st, the Schottenhamel tent was the place to be, if you wanted to catch the official opening ceremonies. At noontime, 12pm, the lord mayor of Munich had the honor of tapping the first keg of Oktoberfest beer. Once the barrel has been tapped, all visitors was allowed to quench their thirst. It paid to arrive early in order to experience the festivities up close and personal and many visitors to came around 9am to secure good seats.

The festival will last until October 6th.
What are the opening hours?
Beer Serving Hours
Weekdays: 10am - 10:30pm
Saturdays, Sundays and holidays: 9am - 10:30pm

And now - IT'S CACHING TIME IN MUNICH ! ! !

You know where the celebration happens, let's see what caches are near by. Take a look at the map.

Yep - you can drink beer, eat some brats and still walk to a ton of caches.

Literally dozens of finds have been found at these caches in the area of the fair grounds. Take a look at a few popular Oktoberfest area caches.

This cache by Scwartle was established in 2002 so has seen lots of Oktoberfest celebraters. Here's a bit of info about this cache.

This is a volatile virtual cache. It can be found from the beginning of August to mid of October. But seeking this cache only makes fun during the last two weeks of September. I guess that most (all?) people surely do not visit the location during these two weeks for geocaching ...

Post either a picture of you or add the link to your sound sample (which is unique here).

And that's the main "challenge" of that cache: You will enter the location probably at N48°07.809 / E011°33.187, N48°08.090 / E011°33.060 or N48°08.146 / E011°32.980. When you enter, start logging your tracks with your GPS receiver and stop logging when you're at the cache! As I guess that almost nobody will go straight to the cache, the tracks will surely look funny. Post your track!

Another cache that is walking distance from the beer-fest is - well it is a name that I can not pronounce but maybe you can. If not, please use the translator on the right column. Take a look atGC15M2B - Oans, zwoa - g'funda! which is located at the north end of the fair grounds. I will let you see what Toasty has to say about their cache.

Like I said, please use the translator is German is not a language you can read.

Follow the outer edges of the fair ground and you will find GC1D53A Munich - GEOPOLY - Bavaria Ring. This is not far from the above cache. Like I told you, there are dozens of caches right there at the fair grounds. vossibar established this cache in 2008 and has been visited
over 2,100. That's a lot of beer drinkers! Here is what vossibar had to say about GEOPOLY -

The Street Bavaria Ring surrounds the eastern part of the famous Theresienwiese. At the location of the cache you have a beautiful view of this place.
Theresienwiese is an open space in the Munich borough of Ludwigsvorstadt-Isarvorstadt. It serves as the official ground of the Munich Oktoberfest. A space of 420,000 square metres (4,500,000 sq ft), it is bordered in the west by the Bavaria statue, symbolizing the State of Bavaria.

My picking caches to check out here is so random. I am looking at names that sound interesting even tho I can not read them. Here's is one more that I found difficult to resist. I wish I could show some of the pics but they are real spoilers so I will skip them.

Just one more here, and I am keeping you with in a healthy walking distance from the fair grounds. This one may be a bit of a hike. From the map, it looks to be about a city block from the grounds but, not knowing where the gates are, it could be some distance. Might be you should do this one before the Mayor taps that keg. Check this one out.

That's it for Oktoberfest for now. Only 7 days left to enjoy the festival, but the caches are always there for you. If you an not from the area or plan on caching there, please take a look at some of the caches surrounding the ones in this post. It is so obvious that the Germans really know how to hide a cache, and hunt them also. I am surprised at the number of 'finds' there are on any of these caches.

I will be back next year, if only on the Internet, but will be excited to share more from Theresienwiese Field.

Hope you find an Oktoberfest geocache event in your area.

This Geocaching Oktoberfest design available on shirts, mugs and almost anything.